Artist’s Dates, Art Books, and Art Blogs

Artist’s Dates With Your Kids

In her book, The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron recommends artist dates with yourself. She writes, “An artist date is a block of time, . . . committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist. . . a play date that you preplan . . . you do not take anyone on this artist date.” On her website she says, “The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic”– think mischief more than mastery.”

Comments

Big fan of the artist-date via J. Cameron….. actually big fan of all her work/suggestions/books/writing/journaling et. al. What a brilliant way to support the creative process: thru books and blogging!!!

My blog is my own creative process and then the fun that I get to have taking my ideas/work into classrooms across the country as an author/illustrator. Seeing how you are pulling resources together inspires me to work harder on my blogging experience. I have a lot to learn when it comes to getting connected to a bigger, wider world. THANKS!!

Melissa~ Thanks for including Usborne Books in your choices!! I Can Draw Animals is a favorite here in our house too!! The Children’s Book of Art is another amazing book–it includes Internet links to recommended websites where you can view lots more pictures, play art games and create your own art online. I love that you are encouraging a love of art in your children and for others–your blog is an inspiration!

Melissa, Thank you so much for including us in your favourite blog list. This is an honour 🙂 I just saw this via your twitter mention. Your compilation of books looks inspiring and interesting. I will check those out… Thank you again for the mention on Twitter as well.

Great post, Melissa! I really enjoyed The Artist’s Way when I read it way back when, and I had forgotten all about the artist’s dates. My daughter and I have these dates together just about every day, but I haven’t given one to myself in AGES! Thank you for the reminder!

Wow, what a cool idea. I have the Artist’s Way as a guidebook for myself but this post made me really think about how much kids would love this. I remember how my mom was always super super busy, cleaning, preparing, making everything just as perfect as possible for her 4 kids- all within 6 1/2 years of each other.

One of my strongest and earliest memories is of her sitting down at our kitchen table and drawing alongside me. She really entered “kid time” . . . and it meant the world. Plus she was AWESOME with crayons so I was totally impressed!

These are wonderful links you collated, Imagination Soup. Your list is such a great resource for parents. So many creative mom bloggers are instilling a love of art in their children and sharing it with others. Wonderful. Thank you so very much. h.

Ooh must check some of these out! I’ve just done a review of an art book you recommended to me ‘Inkblot by Margaret Peot, and also a couple of others. Another favourite which my son enjoyed is the classic ‘Make a World’ by Ed Emberley.

Oooh lovely! Thank you so much for compiling the list of books. We also like “Anna’s Art Adventure” if anyone needs more inspiration! and thank you SO MUCH for mentioning Red Ted Art. Soooo appreciated!